Show me the man you honour; I know by that symptom, better than by any other, what kind of man you yourself are. For you show me there what your ideal of manhood is; what kind of man you long inexpressibly to be, and would thank the gods, with your whole soul, for being if you could. Carlyle.

Shrouded in baleful vapours, the genius of Burns was never seen in clear, azure splendour, enlightening the world; but some beams from it did, by fits, pierce through; and tinted those clouds with rainbow and orient colours into a glory and stern grandeur which men silently gazed on with wonder and tears. Carlyle.

Si ad naturam vivas, nunquam eris pauper; si ad opinionem, nunquam divesIf you live according to the dictates of Nature, you will never be poor; if according to the notions of men, you never will be rich. Seneca.

Si antiquitatem spectes, est vetustissima; si dignitatem, est honoratissima; si jurisdictionem, est capacissimaIf you consider its antiquity, it is most ancient; if its dignity, it is most honourable; if its jurisdiction, it is most extensive. Coke, of the English House of Commons.

Si genus humanum, et mortalia temnitis arma; / At sperate Deos memores fandi atque nefandiIf you despise the human race and mortal arms, yet expect that the gods will not be forgetful of right and wrong. Virgil.

Si javais le malheur dêtre né princeIf I had had the misfortune of being born a prince. Rousseau, in the commencement of a letter to the Duke of Würtemberg, who had asked his advice about the education of his son.

Si la vie est misérable, elle est pénible à supporter; si elle est heureuse, il est horrible de la perdre. Lun revient à lautreIf our life is unhappy, it is painful to bear, and if it is happy, it is horrible to lose it. Thus, the one is pretty equal to the other. La Bruyère.

Si nous navions point de défauts, nous ne prendrions pas tant de plaisir à en remarquer dans les autresIf we had no faults ourselves, we should not take so much pleasure in noticing those of other people. La Rochefoucauld.

Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together; that at length they may emerge, full-formed and majestic, into the daylight of life, which they are thenceforth to rule. Carlyle.

Simplicity is the straightforwardness of a soul which refuses to reflect on itself or its deeds. Many are sincere without being simple; they do not wish to be taken for other than they are, but they are always afraid of being taken for what they are not. Fénelon.

Sink the Bible to the bottom of the ocean, and mans obligations to God would be unchanged. He would have the same path to tread, only his lamp and his guide would be gone; he would have the same voyage to make, only his compass and chart would be overboard. Ward Beecher.

Sire, je navais pas besoin de cette hypothèseYour Majesty, I had no need of that hypothesis. Laplaces answer to Napoleon, who had asked why in his Méchanique Céleste he had made no mention of God.

Sit mihi quod nunc est, etiam minus; ut mihi vivam / Quod superest ævi, si quid superesse volunt DiMay I continue to possess what I have now, or even less; so I may live the remainder of my days after my own plan, if the gods will that any should remain. Horace.

Sky is the part of creation in which Nature has done more for the sake of pleasing man, more for the sole and evident purpose of talking to him and teaching him, than in any other of her works, and it is just the part in which we least attend to her. Ruskin.

Sleep, that knits up the ravelld sleave of care, / The death of each days life, sore labours bath, / Balm of hurt minds, great natures second course, / Chief nourisher in lifes feast. Macbeth, ii. 2.

Small is it that thou canst trample the earth with its injuries under thy foot, as old Greek Zeno trained thee: thou canst love the earth while it injures thee, and even because it injures thee; for this a Greater than Zeno was needed, and he too was sent. Carlyle.

Small service is true service while it lasts. / Of humblest friends, bright creature! scorn not one: / The daisy, by the shadow that it casts, / Protects the lingering dewdrop from the sun. Wordsworth, to a child.

Smallest of mortals, when mounted aloft by circumstances, come to seem great, smallest of phenomena connected with them are treated as important, and must be sedulously scanned, and commented on with loud emphasis. Carlyle.